Recommended
More Related Content
What's hot
What's hot (20)
Similar to Volcanic lightning- Beautiful and rare yet dangerous
Similar to Volcanic lightning- Beautiful and rare yet dangerous (20)
Recently uploaded
Recently uploaded (20)
Volcanic lightning- Beautiful and rare yet dangerous
- 3. A BRIEF INTRODUCTION ➔ It is a weather phenomenon that is related to the production of lightning in a volcanic plume. ➔ It has very little to do with tectonic activity unlike the other volcanic activities, and everything to do with physics. ➔ Its earliest record observations are from Pliny the Younger’s writings from 79 AD describing eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, Italy.
- 5. HISTORY ➔ The first studies of volcanic lightning were conducted at Mt. Vesuvius by Professor Palmieri. ➔ He concluded that the eruptions of this volcanic mountain between 158 and 1872 often included lightning activity. ➔ A study showed that 27-35% of eruptions involve volcanic activity per year. It also showed that volcanic lightning had been observed 212 times in 80 different volcanoes.
- 6. WHERE IS IT FORMED ? ➔ Volcanic lightning is not formed deep in the Earth. It only forms in a volcanic plume, a long cloud of smoke or vapour arising due to volcanic eruption. ➔ Volcanoes that lack a thick volcanic plume usually lack volcanic lightning. Volcanoes in Hawaii, for instance, are more likely to eject fluid lava fountains than thick plumes of ash. These volcanoes rarely have volcanic lightning.
- 7. HOW IS IT FORMED? ➔ The tiny particles that make up a volcanic plume are tightly compressed beneath a volcano. The airy atmosphere above ground, however, is much less dense. This change in density contributes to volcanic lightning. ➔ As densely packed particles are violently ejected in a volcanic plume, they rub against each other. This interaction is called friction. Through friction, ash particles gain and lose electrons—they become electrically charged. As charged particles ascend the less-dense volcanic plume, the plume experiences charge separation. Positively charged particles become increasingly separated from negatively charged particles.
- 8. HOW IS IT FORMED? ➔ When the charge separation becomes too great for air to resist the flow of electricity, lightning tears through the volcanic plume to connect the positively and negatively charged particles.
- 9. ANOTHER CAUSE... ➔ The second kind of lightning, which the authors called “a newly identified explosive phase,” came as a surprise. As magma, ash and rocks spewed from volcano carrying great electrical charge, they created continuous, chaotic sparks near the mouth of the volcano. This type occurred first time in St. Augustine in Alaska in mid-January 2006.
- 10. SEASONAL CAUSE ➔ In a study presented in the Bulletin of Volcanology in 2010, it was stated that “Seasonal effects show that more eruptions with lightning were reported in winter (bounded by the respective autumnal and vernal equinoxes) than in summer”. This finding indicates that the lightning activity is driven by magma- derived water rather than atmospheric
- 11. TWO KINDS OF VOLCANIC LIGHTNING 1. Lightning around in the heights of its towering plume. 2. Lightning around the mouth of an erupting volcano.
- 12. FUN FACTS.. ➔ The temperature of a bolt of volcanic lightning can reach 30,000°C. ➔ The lightning itself may come in various shapes and forms including ball lightning, bolt lightning, sheet lightning or a combination of those as during the eruption of Mt. St. Helens in 1980. ➔ It is beautiful, rare, exquisite but also very deadly… ➔ Scientists started using volcanic lightning to predict the size of an ash cloud.
- 13. THANK YOU